Did Obama Create 5 Million New Jobs?

——————————————————————————————————————————–Note: 9th in a series on President Obama’s job creation record<=== Previous || Next==>——————————————————————————————————————————–

The problem with politicians is they will tell you anything to get elected. To make a good first impression in the first debate last night, the first verifiable fact out of President Obama’s mouth was this:

Over the last 30 months, we’ve seen 5 million jobs in the private sector created – President Obama, 1st Presidential Debate, 10/2/2012

Perhaps the President knows something we don’t. If he does then tomorrow’s blockbuster headlines will read, “Private-sector Creates 400,000 Jobs in September!!” when the Monthly Jobs Report is release Friday morning by the BLS.

Nobody in their wildest imagination believe that’s possible, but that is what must happen for Obama’s 1st impression claim to be true.——————————————————————————————————————————–Note: For the record, the BLS reported +104,000 private-sector jobs created in September——————————————————————————————————————————–

The Jobs Depression

Mr. President. This nation is in a full-fledged jobs depression.

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data show we permanently lost at least 5 million jobs in the Great Recession and job growth has been barely keeping up with population growth over the last 30 months.

According to the BLS, there are 23.5 million Americans unemployed or underemployed or who want or are actively seeking work. That doesn’t even count the millions who have simply given up looking for work all together.

Unless you face reality and quit trying to present a false impression of job creation and then go on to do nothing but suggest namby-pamby bandaid solutions, this nation cannot recover economically.

Summary of Job Creation Under Obama

Over the last 30 months, up through August, the private-sector created 4.6 million new jobs. September’s jobs numbers come out tomorrow.

But that isn’t the whole jobs picture… it is infuriating that the President knows, but ignores it.

The private-sector, though a HUGE segment of all jobs in this country, is a subset of a category of jobs the BLS calls “total nonfarm”. That category is, in turn, only a subset of total employment. As of August, the difference between private-sector and total employment is 31 million jobs out of 142 million total jobs nationwide.

The President only talks about private-sector job growth because everywhere else jobs are being lost. According to the BLS, we lost -314,000 jobs in total employment in the last two months!

The vast majority of jobs “created/saved” under ARRA – “The Stimulus” – were public-sector, not private-sector jobs. Most ARRA jobs were “saved”, not created.

Today, there are -677,000 fewer public-sector jobs than the day President Obama took office.

Conclusions

Jobs and the economy are, by far, the most important issues in the 2012 elections.

The President himself recognized that when the first substantive thing he said in the first presidential debate was reserved for an extravagant claim that totally distorts this country’s true jobs situation. Romney made a huge mistake not calling him out on that one line alone. It cuts to the core of the main two issues and Obama’s attempts to minimize them.

There are fewer jobs in the U.S. today than when President took office. Yes, Obama was dealt a raw deal coming in. It wasn’t his fault. But there comes a time when blaming the past rings hollow. That time has came and went.

The President is allowing election year politics to cloud his judgment. Now he has resorted to seriously exaggerating his job creation record. It is both detrimental and dangerous for this country’s economic recovery.

Sadly, President Obama is only one of the vast majority of politicians that have a problem telling the truth. Until we the people decide to take politics and our governments seriously, nothing will change. Many, many more citizens need to get engaged in the process. They need to work themselves into the parties at the local level, the state level, and the federal level. That is the only way they can be part of seeking out the best possible candidates and then work to get them elected. I am not going to hold my breath.

Your are right, I could have just as easily criticized Romney as Obama over things said in last night’s debate. I didn’t for two reasons: 1-I think Obama’s policies are far more damaging now to the country than Romney’s ever could be. 2-Republicans never get a fair shake in a liberal dominated press and I’m an underdog kinda guy.

You hit the nail squarely on the head suggesting citizen voters need to be more engaged in the process than they are now. This election is the most important of my lifetime and I have lived through 11 Presidents, going back to Eisenhower. I liked Ike! 😉

President Obama got trashed in the debate by all the polling results and in electronic election markets where you can bet on who wins. I think the site is InComp, not sure it is legal for US citizens to play. Before the debate Obama’s odds were 75% he would win reelection, after the debate the betting probability went to 65%. That is a big collapse.

Obama lost because just look at that picture with that arrogant smirk in your post. The public knows damn well we are in a Jobs Depression. They see his narcissism. But he does not see these things because he surrounds himself with a couture or bubble of air heads who would never tell him the truth if they even knew what it was.

Last night the great orator was not to be seen either with all the Ahs and Uhs and looking at the floor for some odd reason. Take this as no endorsement of Romney as his math on tax cuts not cutting into government revenue is what George HW Bush properly called in 1980 Voodoo Economics. This country needs to leave Republican voodoo behind and dump the Democrat denial about the federal government doing everything for everyone for free.

Finally, it really is time for Jim Lehrer to retire–he is incompetent.

Lehrer, imho, is a danged good presidential debate moderator. I thought his topics, questions and format were very, very good.

But with his low-key style and so little debate time, he didn’t stand a chance keeping those two on point. In a sense it worked out well. Romney and Obama going at each other one-on-one gave voters a perspective of them they will never get anywhere else.

I thought Romney dominated in his most animated debate yet and I thought Obama was more uncomfortable at the beginning than I expected.

Overall, I thought both of them did reasonably well.

Romney had a tendency to bull his way right over Lehrer at times and that might have hurt him a little bit. But Romney had no choice. If he didn’t do that then he could never make his points and would have lost for sure.

I watched the debate at the local Democratic county headquarters with a good sized group. I was interested in the demographic makeup of liberal attendees. To me it looked like Obama has lost the college and youth vote so important for him in 2008, but has gained a more important demographic – the retired.